Problem saving a file [DROPBOX]

[Paul A. Rubin]

On 9/20/20 1:43 PM, Richard Kimberly Heck wrote:
> On 9/20/20 12:46 PM, jcredberry at gmail.com wrote:
>> BTW, on my Mac I have Lyx v. 2.3.1-1. My coauthor has 2.3.0!!! 
>> Curious, isn´t it? A regression?
>
> Again, it's just a guess, but I think this might have been a 'stale' 
> lockfile. It got left behind at some point so Dropbox is confused. 
> That's why the file seems like a 'normal' file somehow and you're 
> being asked if you want to delete it.
>
> Riki
>
>
I agree with Riki. Also, I suspect this is a LyX on Windows (or LyX on 
Dropbox on Windows) thing. I use Linux Mint on my devices, and I can 
have the same file open (in a Dropbox folder) on two devices, make 
changes on both devices, and never get a lock file. On the other hand, I 
do some work with a coauthor who uses LyX on Windows. In one of our 
shared Dropbox folders, I see a #TbPapers.lyx# file with a 2018 
modification date. It's a file she created and maintained -- I don't 
think I ever touched it -- so my guess is LyX created it during some 
edit and never removed it. As best I can recall, I've only seen the 
#...# stuff with LyX files.

As lock files go, they're a bit odd. Normally a lock file has zero bytes 
(or maybe one or two). Its job is just to exist, signaling the real file 
is in use. In the case of #TbPapers.lyx#, it's almost as large as the 
actual TbPapers.lyx file. There's also a TbPapers.lyx~ file, and all 
have the same file date. So the ~ file is the normal backup LyX creates 
when a save is done.

I don't work with anyone using LyX on a Mac, so I have no idea if it 
participates in this madness. :-)

Paul